Meryl Swanson (Paterson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to concur with the words of my neighbour and colleague the member for Hunter: zip, zero, zilch for the Hunter for infrastructure. Like many in this chamber I listened intently to Treasurer Scott Morrison's budget in the hope that the needs of my hardworking constituents and taxpayers in my electorate of Paterson wouldn't be forgotten on budget night. Like most on this side of the House I was let down, as were my people in Maitland, Kurri Kurri, Raymond Terrace and Nelson Bay. What a disappointment.

We were let down by the fact that this government still expects many of us to work till we're 70 and provided no infrastructure funding whatsoever. The member for Hunter mentioned the Hunter Expressway—fondly known as Fitzy's Freeway in our part of the world. It's been a major boost. But we have another critical piece of transport corridor, the M1, which vehicular traffic traverses from Sydney to Brisbane—big trucks, grey nomads with their caravans, people in Sydney who are trying to escape the congestion, trying to get north. That intersects with the New England Highway, and there again we have all manner of goods being transported, west to east to the port of Newcastle. It is a major intersection. It is causing so much delay and congestion for the transport economy and also the local economy in my region. There was not a dollar for it, yet Infrastructure Australia lists it as a priority project. Truly, we were let down.

We were let down by the Treasurer's continued push to strip pensioners in my electorate of the $14 a week they receive now to help with the astronomical electricity bills—$14 goes a long way when you're on a pension. We were let down by the Turnbull government's smoke-and-mirror tax plan that won't take effect for years and years, and in the end will leave taxpayers in my electorate about $600 worse off than they would be under Labor's real tax plan. We heard a great deal about Prime Minister Turnbull's whizzbang new tax plan in the lead up to the budget. There were more leaks than the proverbial sieve, actually. We gleaned prior to the official announcement that the government wanted us to have a simpler tax system. Those of us outside the highest income echelons also hoped for a system that ensured a fairer distribution of wealth and fewer opportunities for multinationals to indulge and imbibe in tax avoidance. We expected that the taxation changes would be funded so that those who received the least weren't lining the pockets of those with the most. We hoped the government would allocate money to make our schools better, our universities more affordable and our TAFE more accessible and would allocate money to give our kids the best start in life and make sure our retirement years are as comfortable as possible. Yes, on 8 May 2018 the people of Australia once again looked to the Turnbull government to deliver fairness. What a disappointment. They looked for fairness on issues where every Australian, regardless of age, gender, location or status deserved equity. We were badly let down.

We are disappointed—not surprised but disappointed. Now, two weeks on, that disappointment is actually turning to anger, and I feel it in my electorate when I get back. People just shake their head. I can't help but think of my lovely mum. She's 86, and she's seen a lot of prime ministers come and go. She's a very intelligent woman, who lived through the Depression as a child. She gets a bit cynical at times, but she said, 'You know, Turnbull: I really thought that he'd be better. I just thought he would be, but he's just turned out to be nothing. He doesn't stand for anything. They're not really doing anything. You know, that budget was really pretty empty.' I thought, 'Wow, Mum.' Older people—you can't hoodwink them.

Outrage was really felt that Prime Minister Turnbull and his troupe of economic wizards think it's more important to give an $80 billion tax handout to big business and to the big banks, who've been under the blow torch of that not necessary royal commission: 'Oh no, nothing to see here, folks. We don't need a royal commission.' What a joke! Everyone in Australia knows when they're being ripped off. They've got very strong monitors for when they're being ripped off.

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